


This World in Arms

by flyby



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn
Genre: Community: khrfest, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-06
Updated: 2010-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-12 11:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyby/pseuds/flyby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If she's going to become part of this world, she needs to be prepared.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This World in Arms

**Author's Note:**

> For khrfest, from the prompt _Tsuna/Kyoko - betrayal; "the first time she'd held a gun"_

**This World in Arms**

 

Tsu-kun is sweet, but she realises early on that he's never going to ask, because he doesn't want her involved with the Vongola. She can't really blame him, and for a while she's even grateful for it; what she's seen of the mafia world, both in the strange future-that-wasn't and in their everyday life, in her brother's bandages and Yamamoto-kun's scars and Tsu-kun's frequent hunted looks, is terrifying. She's happy to be protected from that, for a while.

Things change, in high school. The summer of her second year, instead of ice cream and festivals there are rumours of yakuza moving in, and suddenly the simple peace of Namimori seems tense and threatening. Her brother starts coming home with bruises and badly-hidden cuts, when he comes home at all, and the one time she catches a glimpse of Tsu-kun he looks like someone else, someone with sad eyes who she doesn't know. It gives her an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach as she lies in bed listening to the faint sound of explosions in the distance (her father has been grumbling about kids setting off Bon fireworks too early) and unable to keep from wondering if her friends are out there getting hurt, if Tsu-kun is hurting himself again with the things he has to do.

In the end, she discovers, it hurts more to _not_ know, to be the one left out when even Haru-chan has that hard and determined light in her eyes, to be unable to help Tsu-kun when his shoulders seem to bow beneath the weight he must be carrying. How selfish is she really being, to insist on being protected from the things her friends are fighting for, just because she's afraid?

"Are you ready to do something about it?"

Kyoko starts, blinking her eyes clear of worries as she turns to see Reborn-kun relaxing in a little easy-chair on top of the wall beside her.

"Ah..." She supposes it wouldn't do her much good to pretend she doesn't understand. Across the roof, she can see Tsu-kun, sitting bracketed as always by Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun, twitch and start looking around nervously. She turns her head to the side as a group of students walk between them. "He's... not going to ask, is he?"

"If you want that, you'll have to make the first move." Reborn-kun takes a sip of his expensive-looking coffee. "My useless student could use a wake-up call."

"Tsu-kun's very brave," Kyoko murmurs, considering the prospect. She doesn't like comparing herself to the pushy girls who mob Yamamoto-kun and are scared away by Gokudera-kun, but she doesn't like being pushed away for her own good, either.

"It's good that you think so," Reborn-kun says urbanely, hopping up out of his chair to look her in the eyes. His face is entirely unreadable, disconcerting. "Our Families respect women, but many of our enemies are less honourable. Are you prepared?"

Kyoko bites her lip, thinking of Byakuran and the future that hadn't been. She'd had a role, there, a place and a purpose in supporting the Vongola. She'd seen the way Tsu-kun and her brother had smiled at her, worried and protective but taking a little strength from her support. Even if there's nothing she can really do to help, she wants to be there for them.

"I trust Tsu-kun," she murmurs, glancing over at him through her lashes. He's grown a little since middle school, though he'll never be tall, and now when he moves she can see the shadows of that bright burning grace.

"Good answer." Reborn-kun adjusts his hat and leaps to the top of the fence, sparing her a last glance. "You pass." Then he's gone. Kyoko leans against the wall, and watches the boys bend together over a textbook, probably Tsu-kun's hated math. It's a little weird, but she thinks Reborn-kun is probably right. It's going to be up to her.

* * *

It's easier than she anticipates to catch him alone; Gokudera-kun takes one look at her face as she steps up to them in the hallway, glances over at Tsu-kun, and backs off without even having to be prompted.

"Tenth, I'm going to go find the baseball freak. Please call me if you need me!" And he's gone, jogging off down the corridor with a wave as Tsu-kun watches bemused.

Kyoko giggles a little, her stomach tight with nerves; she's been thinking about this moment too much, trying to put together words that won't sound childish or silly or clichéd. When he turns to her, though, blinking down at her polite and worried and so tangled up in his own feelings and fears, her nervousness and anticipation are swallowed in hot bright certainty: this is where she belongs, by his side.

This complicated thing, it turns out, is actually incredibly simple.

* * *

It's around their third date, when Tsu-kun's stopped tripping over himself with nervousness but still has that adorably astonished expression on his face every time he looks at her, that Kyoko decides she should probably know how to protect herself. She'll never be a fighter, doesn't want to know what happens on those nights when he doesn't answer his phone and her brother sneaks in late with bruises already fading, but she's chosen to become a part of this world, and she doesn't want to be a burden either.

That's as far as she gets for a while, though, because there doesn't seem to be anyone around who could help her. Her brother, for all that he professes himself "extremely delighted!" to see her and Tsuna together, still hasn't told Hana anything about his 'job'. Kyoko wonders sometimes whether Hana-chan (and it's still so weird, her brother and her best friend) is happy with that, or whether like Kyoko she will eventually come to the Vongola by her own will.

Neither can she ask any of the other boys; they have their own preoccupations, and Tsu-kun is the centre of their world; it wouldn't be fair to any of them. She thinks about going to one of the other girls, but Bianchi-san is away in Italy doing something Kyoko carefully hasn't asked about, and Chrome can be a little, well, strange. There's Haru-chan, who Kyoko is well aware carries a gun in her purse and has been taking lessons from Bianchi, but things are a little awkward between them right now. It's not that she thinks Haru-chan could ever begrudge her happiness; she'd hugged her, honestly thrilled, when Kyoko had stumbled through a blushing explanation of the situation. It's just that she can't help remembering that Haru, at least for a while, had wanted this too.

In the end, she comes back to the babies. Not Reborn-kun or Colonello-kun, because she's seen her brother and Tsu-kun after their training, and honestly the prospect is a little scary, but Sawada-san is in Namimori right now, along with Basil-kun and, she's pretty sure, Lal Mirch. So it's just a matter of finding her.

It takes a few weeks of patience, and eventually Kyoko resorts to hiking up to her brother's favourite training ground in the hills on the eastern edge of town. The scars and ridges in the ground make her swallow, and the sun on her head is heavy enough that she wishes she'd worn a hat. After a moment of peering around, wondering what she's waiting for, she chooses a spot near a small drop-off and sits down with her back to a boulder, looking out at the sun starting to sink over Namimori. The view really is beautiful from up here; if she squints and counts carefully, she thinks she can make out the roof of her house.

"Kyoko-chan, hey!" The sudden rush of eagle wings as Falco arcs down startles her; Kyoko scrambles to her feet, clasping her hands nervously in front of her.

"Hello Colonello-kun." She'd not expected him to be alone, but maybe...

"Are you looking for Sasagawa?" The voice is higher, lighter, but the tone is familiar and acerbic. Kyoko has to crane her neck to see her, cross-armed in her cloak and strangely out of proportion atop the boulder, visor glinting red in the light of the setting sun.

"Ryohei's with Reborn's kid, hey." Falco flaps up as Lal-san leaps down from the boulder, and Kyoko realises for the first time that this Lal Mirch is a slight shadow of her former self, no larger than Hana-chan's little sister yet just as tense and dangerous as Kyoko remembers her. She doesn't know why it should stymie her, when she's so used to Reborn-kun and Colonello-kun who are every bit the most dangerous people she has ever met, but somehow she can't find words until Lal Mirch scowls and starts to turn away.

"Ah, Lal-san, I... wanted to ask for your help," she manages.

"Hm?" She can barely see the sideways glance, beneath the visor, but she's sure it's there. Colonello makes an interested sound and gets an irritated humph for it. "Well?" Lal-san's voice is scratchy and dry; Kyoko swallows and bows carefully, the painstakingly rehearsed words spilling heedlessly from her mouth.

"Please, Lal-san, I need to learn to defend myself. I don't want to be a burden on Tsu-kun, if... if something happens."

"Hohh." Colonello-kun sounds very thoughtful, but Lal-san ignores him, staring at Kyoko for so long that she has to look away.

"Lal-san?"

"If there's one thing I can guarantee, it's that something will happen." Lal Mirch eyes her some more, then shrugs. "If you think you're prepared for that, there's an empty lot on the edge of the warehouse district near the school. Be there at noon tomorrow."

* * *

"If you think I can magically make you strong, think again." Lal Mirch's voice, in the wake of the midday chimes drifting over from the school, makes Kyoko start; she spins around, flustered, only to freeze when her eyes meet the barrel of the gun that's pointed at her.  
"Relax, girl, it's not loaded." Lal-san hops down from the half-demolished wall. "Anyone looking at you can tell you don't have the temperament to fight. I can't teach you that, and I'm not going to try. What I can do is teach you how to shoot if you have to. What you do with that knowledge is up to you." She lowers the gun, then tosses it down at Kyoko's feet; Kyoko flinches, barely stops herself from backing away. She asked for this, she reminds herself, and she knew what she was asking for.

"Pick it up." Lal-san's voice is stone cold, and Kyoko flinches again, looking down at the dull black thing gleaming by her feet. Everything about it is blunt and deadly; she feels sick to her stomach and it takes her a tremendous effort to bend her shaking knees. Her fingers shrink from the cool smoothness of the weapon, and she has to force them to curl around the grip. It's lighter than she expects, and she stares helplessly at Lal Mirch, holding it gingerly in both hands as her flesh tries to creep away from the cold reality of it.

"It's a start," Lal-san mutters, unclipping her cloak and spreading it over a low crate to make a kind of table. "Pay attention, girl. This is a nine-millimetre Beretta Px4 Subcompact, and you're going to learn to hold it like you mean it."

* * *

It takes her a while, but she does learn how to hold the gun, Lal-san's sharp voice snapping at her to hurry up as she painstakingly disassembles then puts it back together again. Actually firing it is another matter; Kyoko stands trembling in the makeshift shooting range they've set up in an abandoned warehouse, staring at the paper target taped to the wall and unable to maker herself pull the trigger until Lal-san loses patience and steps up on a crate to close child-sized hands over hers.

"If you can't even do this," and the gun kicks in her hand like some kind of terrified animal, the noise of the shot deafening as she's thrown back into Lal-san's wiry bracing strength, "how do you think it's going to protect you from anything?" She drops her arms, taking the gun with her, and Kyoko staggers, has to brace herself against the sudden wave of nausea. What is she even doing here?

"Listen, child." Lal-san hops down from the crate, sighting along the barrel of the gun and squeezing off another shot that doesn't even rock her, hitting the target dead centre. "A gun is a weapon; you can threaten with it, but you have to be willing to shoot. Otherwise it means nothing. Understand?"

Kyoko closes her eyes, thinking of the determination on her brother's face when he'd stepped between her and the bullies, of the fear behind the golden glow in Tsu-kun's eyes when he'd faced the Black Spell for her in the ten-years-from-then that will never happen. "I understand," she says eventually, because how can she do less? And though her hands and her voice shake as she takes the gun back from Lal-san, when she braces herself and pulls the trigger (she knows what to expect now, the weight and force of it), the bullet slams into the edge of the target with no uncertainty at all. She can do this, Kyoko thinks, taking aim again and trying to breathe around the iron lump of determination in her stomach. She can do this, if they can.

* * *

It takes some time, but eventually Lal Mirch pronounces her "as good as you're going to get"; Kyoko isn't quite sure what to make of that, but when Lal-san turns to stride off she recognises the dismissal for what it is. She's careful as she engages the safety, checks that it's on, and stows the (still-not-quite-comfortable but at least solidly _hers_ ) gun in her bag. It looks terribly out of place next to her makeup pouch and hairbrush and datebook, and after a moment she pulls her purse out of its inner compartment and slides the Beretta in there instead, barrel down. At least that way it won't be visible if someone looks in, and she won't have to scrabble around for it.

Her ears feel hot when she pulls off the protectors and hangs them on their nail. She glances around at the little conveniences of habit that they've built up in this place, the stack of carefully-drawn paper targets pinned under half a brick, the dented metal bucket for the spent casings, and wonders for a moment whether she should pack things up. It might be as well, though, to have somewhere to come if she needs to keep her hand in, so in the end she just slips the spare clip and box of rounds into her bag, too, and shuts the rickety door carefully behind her when she leaves.

And then, for all intents and purposes, she forgets about it, the gun in her bag just a reassuring weight, barely thought about. Occasionally it crosses her mind to stop back in at the makeshift range and make sure she can still hit a target if she needs to, but there's so much in her life – schoolwork and tests and leaf viewing parties and cooking lessons from Bianchi-san and the way Tsu-kun kisses her, shy and nervous at the corner of her mouth until she turns her head into it, curling her hands in his jacket. Somehow the dangers of the mafia, hitmen and rival Families and Dying Will Flames, seem a lot less real in the face of such things, easier to push into the background hum of Namimori life.

Before she knows it, the days are starting to draw in towards winter; there's a palpable chill in the air when they step out of the cinema into the busy street, and Kyoko shivers a little, tucking her arm into Tsu-kun's and inching a little closer to his side.

"Eh? Kyoko-chan?" He sounds startled, but puts a tentative arm around her shoulders all the same.

"Thank you." Kyoko snuggles against his side, smiling up at him. "It's a little cold."

"Ah, I suppose." Tsu-kun frowns, like he's thinking hard, and glances down at her with a faint flush on his cheeks. "Um, Kyoko-chan, would you like to, well, there's a cafe just down here, we could maybe get some hot chocolate? A-and I could buy you some cake?" He sounds so hopeful that she can't help but smile a little wider.

"Tsu-kun, it's not self-appreciation day until tomorrow, you know."

"Ah, I know, but..." He rubs the back of his head with his free hand. "I... I can appreciate Kyoko-chan all the time, right? Not just the third Sunday. Or... something..." He trails off, blushing bright red and steadfastly refusing to meet her gaze. Kyoko swallows against the sudden bright knot of happiness in her throat and starts to stretch up to kiss him, even though they're right there in the street among the crowd of movie-goers and night-time shoppers, but the sudden tension that crackles through him like an electric shock freezes her where she stands.

"Tsu-kun...?" He's scanning the crowds around them, eyes sharp and worried, but after a moment he looks down at her, attempting a smile that's too wobbly to be true.  
"Kyoko-chan, we need to hurry..."

"Okay." Something is obviously happening, something serious, so she pulls gently away from his side, taking the hand that he holds out to her. His other hand is fumbling with his cell phone as they speed up, heading down the street towards the department store, and his fingers are tight and clammy around hers. Kyoko follows his lead, glancing around surreptitiously; nothing seems suspicious at all, to her, but she trusts his instincts.

They're almost to the bus stop, walking so fast that they might as well be running, when something heavy slams into her from behind. Kyoko staggers, and her fingers loosen on Tsu-kun's for just long enough that someone grabs her sharply by the shoulders, lifting her right off the ground and pulling her into the mouth of an alleyway.

"Kyoko-chan!" Tsu-kun sounds terrified, but Kyoko is too surprised to even scream, let alone struggle, and there are suddenly people between her and Tsuna, obscuring her view as everything gets very confused and many things seem to happen at once. Then she's being set roughly back on her feet, a heavy hand on the back of her neck and something sharp pressing into her ribs.

"Easy, little girl. Just play nice and no one'll get hurt," a coarse voice says into her ear; Kyoko shrinks in on herself, clutching her bag tightly as her eyes flick desperately around. She's in the alleyway behind the department store, and two men in shiny black suits are pointing guns at Tsu-kun where he's backed against the opposite wall and staring at her with agony in his eyes.

"Now, Vongola," one of the men says, and though he has some kind of accent, Kyoko's pretty sure it's not Italian. "Let's talk about the shipping operation in Yokohama, yes?"

"Let Kyoko-chan go," is all Tsu-kun says; his eyes are fixed on her and his voice is shaking and Kyoko swallows. She was too slow to react, even knowing that there was a threat.

"Perhaps, after we've had our talk." The man who's speaking glances back at her, his face shadowed by bleached hair and the heavy light of the security lamps overhead. Kyoko, shivering, thinks he smiles. "Perhaps we'll play with her a little, though, to give you some... incentive, yes?"

Kyoko flinches at that, and Tsu-kun makes an abortive movement towards her, heedless of the guns trained on him. He stops though, frozen, when the knife pricks into her side and she gasps.

"Tch." The mafia man gestures with his gun, and Kyoko thinks incongruously of Lal-san's dry words: it's not a weapon unless you mean to use it. She clutches her bag tighter, wondering if she can slip her hand inside before they catch her at it.

"Hurry up, boss," the man holding her calls, his accent even thicker, flat and difficult to decipher. Kyoko looks at Tsuna's terrified face, at the backs of the men threatening him, and decides that she's probably going to have to make her own chance, if she wants one. She's the weak link here; two men with guns can't be any kind of threat to Tsu-kun. So she takes a deep breath, slides her fingers carefully under the flap of her bag, and lets her knees do what they've been threatening to do for the past five minutes and buckle.

The man holding her lets out a startled noise as she drops out of his grip, and Kyoko ignores the sudden stinging of her knees as they smack into the filthy concrete. Though she's more terrified than she can remember being since they'd come back from the future-that-wasn't, her fingers aren't shaking at all as they close around the grip of the Beretta.

"Leave Tsu-kun alone!" She drops her bag, raises the gun, sights along the barrel at the one they'd called boss and ignores the startled exclamation of the man with the knife. She tries to block out everything but the target, the way Lal-san had taught her, but she can't quite make herself ignore the fact that this isn't a paper symbol but a person. Can she shoot, if she has to? She's honestly not sure, and she flinches, finger tightening on the trigger grip as the mafia man turns to her, his own gun still pointing at Tsu-kun.

"Now, little girl, put that down, yes?" He doesn't believe she's a threat, Kyoko realises. Unfortunately, she's not sure she believes it either, but she knows she has to do something about it. Setting her jaw, she tilts the barrel of the gun, breathes as calmly as she can, and fires.

She means it as a chance to distract them, to give Tsu-kun an opportunity to get away, to fight back, but as the bullet slams into the wall in a cloud of brick dust beside the suddenly-wide-eyed mafia man's head, Tsuna doesn't even move. He just stands there, frozen, staring at her in terribly visible horror. As the sound of the shot echoes off the walls and the alley erupts in a cacophany of shouts, Gokudera-kun sliding in with red flames blazing and Yamamoto-kun hot on his heels, all Kyoko can do is meet Tsuna's horrified eyes as he stands there, still in the chaos and looking at her like the world is ending. She has the horrible feeling that she's just broken something, maybe beyond repair.

* * *

  


* * *

"No-good Tsuna, shouldn't you be meeting Kyoko this afternoon?" Reborn's pretty sure he broke Tsuna of pacing his room pulling at his hair a while back, but he seems to have regressed. More lessons are clearly in order. He sips his espresso, and eyes his student as Tsuna stops where his is then plunks down at the table with his head in his hands.

"How can I go and meet Kyoko-chan?!" he demands, muffled and slightly hysterical. "She had a _gun_ , Reborn! Kyoko-chan did!"

"Yes, I know." He'd been impressed by her aim, in fact; less so by his useless student's wavering. A boss should act decisively. "It's good that she's thought that far ahead. A mafia wife should know how to shoot." So should Tsuna, he thinks; perhaps he ought to have seen to it sooner. He will have to give some thought to an appropriate sidearm for the Vongola Tenth.

"Ehh?!" Tsuna jerks bolt upright, flailing indecorously. "Kyoko-chan can't – she's not a hitman, she shouldn't have to...!" He runs out of words, gaping like a fish for a moment before burying his head in his hands. "It's all my fault, I should never have let her get involved with this, I knew it wasn't safe..."

"Che." Reborn lifts a hand to his hat, and Leon obligingly transforms into a mallet to allow him to knock Tsuna sharply upside the head, neatly cutting off the depressed rambling. Out of respect for the fact that there had been muffled sobs from under Tsuna's bedcovers sometime last night, he holds back the blow so that his idiot student is only thrown to the floor rather than halfway across the room. "Get a hold of yourself, No-good Tsuna."

"Reborn!" Tsuna rolls to his knees, clutching his head. "What was that for?!"

"Kyoko is trying to take responsibility for her own safety so that you don't have to worry for her," Reborn spells out patiently, shaking Leon back into his usual form.

"Kyoko-chan shouldn't have to be part of the mafia at all," Tsuna protests, then sighs, drooping. "It's not fair..."

"Tch." Reborn hops off the table, kicking him in the knee hard enough that he bleats and clutches at himself. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Kyoko isn't a child to be protected any more. She's Family."

"How can I look at her now?" Tsuna wails, clutching at his hair. "All I can think of is her shooting at that guy! It's not right!"

"Hmph." Reborn considers this, and has to admit that for once his student might not be wrong. Strolling over to his briefcase, he pops the lock and starts shuffling through various items of varying importance – ah, there's the extra magazine for his second-favourite gun, and the night-vision scope for his sniper rifle; he's been meaning to get that upgraded. The box he's looking for is stored in a pocket, beneath the pen that transforms into a bullet and the other pen with the hidden knife. He takes it back over to the table, and kicks Tsuna again to be sure he's paying attention.

"Kyoko's a good girl, but a gun doesn't suit her. Give her this instead." The top of the box flips back to reveal a plain silver ring in a knotwork design, and Tsuna recoils as if he'd been offered a live snake.

"EHH?!" He waves his hands frantically, all but toppling over backward in his haste to back away. "T-that's – I can't – I'm not ready for marriage! Even if – even with Kyoko-chan!"

"Stupid Tsuna." Reborn grabs his hand, ignoring the sudden pained yelping, and tips the ring into it. "This is a shield ring, not an engagement ring. It's a defensive armament that's impervious to blades or bullets and activates with a Sun flame. It's more suitable for Kyoko than a weapon."

"O-oh." Startled out of his flailing, Tsuna picks the ring up gingerly, turning it over to examine it. "Like Lal Mirch's stealth ring?"

"A little." Such rings had been rare once, and the improvements in box technology are only making them rarer. Reborn sees little reason to tell Tsuna that the ring he's peering at is a Vongola heirloom, worth the yearly output of a small nation. Eminently suitable for one who will one day be the mother of Vongola heirs. "Kyoko's flame type is the Sun, like her brother's. You should teach her how to call it out."

Tsuna blinks at him, a flush slowly spreading across his cheekbones as he no doubt pictures this. Reborn nods approvingly.

"Get moving, No-good Tsuna. Kyoko will be worried that you're standing her up."

"Ah! Kyoko-chan!" Tsuna yanks out his phone even as he's tripping his way to the door, snatching up his jacket one-handed. "Kyoko-chan, I'm sorry! I'm on my way, please don't leave...!"

Reborn sips at his coffee, smiling to himself as the clatter on the stairs turns to the thud of Tsuna tumbling down them and picking himself right back up to dash out of the house. His useless student can be pretty slow sometimes, but he usually gets there eventually.


End file.
